REVIEW / Into the Emberlands (PC)

You find me in a mild state of shock. I was just prepping to tell you lovely lot all about Into The Emberlands, the game I’ve been playing on PC this week. This shock doesn’t come from a poor experience with the game or the fact that I’ve just seen reviews with which I agree or disagree. The shock comes from scrolling down the Steam page and seeing the price. I believe the words, “no fucking way”, inadvertently escaped my mouth when I saw that it was the staggering total of £5.49 on offer from the even more staggering total of £8.62. I’m mentioning this now because I want you to bear it in mind as we go into the review. You are getting a full title, (regardless of my feelings for it,) for less than the price of a pint of beer. As I’ve already mentioned, I didn’t have a bad experience you can probably see where this is going already, but I’ve got you now so we might as well continue.

Into the Emberlands is a cute resource management adventure set in a world that has been plunged into darkness. You are given a lantern and sent out into the wilds outside your village to find and save the lost souls caught in the wilderness when the light faded. You must also gather resources on your journey to help the village prosper. Your ultimate task, however, is to ensure your lantern never goes out. If your light extinguishes you and any stranded villagers will be lost forever.

Into the Emberlands starts very simply. You won’t need to go more than a few feet from your village to collect the wood and stone you’ll need to upgrade various buildings and any lost souls won’t be too far away. With every set of demands you fulfill, though, you’ll find yourself having to stray further away, and your lantern will only ever allow you to go so far before it dims and you lose.

As you journey you’ll find lots of points of interest dotted about the map. These aren’t just resource deposits but also characters that will exchange your goods for other much-needed items. This being said it’s very easy to lose track of the amount of ember you’re holding in your lantern. It doesn’t matter how much you’ve collected or how far you’ve been if you can’t get home to tell the tale. Stepping foot back into the village will refill your lantern completely but this is very much easier said than done. If you are two steps away and your light goes out it’s game over.

You won’t just be managing the resources you collect but also the items you’ll need to collect those resources. You’ll want to make sure you have an axe and a pickaxe with you at all times. Every step you make will burn the ember in your lantern so going through an obstacle is often the preferred approach to going around it. If you have a wall of trees in front of you and no axe you’ll have to take a more difficult and importantly dangerous approach to getting to where you need to be. The amount of inventory spots you have is very limited, so thinking ahead is critical.

Amongst the many characters you’ll meet on your journey Into the Emberlands are a series of very important giant chickens called Emberclucks. If you can gift these chickens with ember crystals they will increase your lantern storage, increase your inventory, or allow you to carry more gold. All of these things are crucial to success but you don’t just fall over these crystals and they are often needed for other tasks. This brings me to the thing that is the most fun and the most frustrating about this game.

The more your village expands the more complicated its requirements will become. You’ll find yourself needing to carry more items and find new ways to obtain others. This means that it’s a constant juggling act to be sure that you have everything you need. It’s fine to find a mission-critical item but if it prevents you from having space to carry something basic that you desperately require it’s pointless. The ultimate goal is always going to be getting home, and that is often more difficult than it seems.

Into the Emberlands is the sort of game that you can easily play in short bouts. You won’t lose anything by completing a task or two and then picking things back up at another point. The thing is, you won’t. I often play in bite-sized chunks, simply because it’s the only way I have time to live. I promised myself an hour last night then lost my entire evening and didn’t even realize. If you lose you will want to try again and just saying “one more task” is a recipe for a lot of lost time. This isn’t saying anything negative about the game but if your time management skills are as good as mine you can expect to cancel a few plans.

Nuts and bolts-wise everything in Into the Emberlands ticks along nicely. This is a cute, colorful romp with fun graphics and sound design that’s perfectly fitting for the job. Controls-wise everything is point and click so there’s nothing to complain about there either. There really isn’t anything visual or audible letting down the experience. To be honest, it feels a little bit like a virtual board game at times and this in and of itself adds an interesting dimension to the proceedings.

All in all, Into the Emberlands is worth every penny of the asking price. This is the sort of game that places you into a false sense of security early on because the first few sets of tasks feel like a cakewalk. You’ll find very quickly though, that this game has an insidiously difficult side that will keep you coming back for more again and again. If you like resource games but aren’t necessarily a fan of the building aspect, (it’s all done for you,) I think Into the Emberlands will be an ideal addition to your collection.